---
product_id: 675902171
title: "Orbital (International Edition)"
price: "$37.12"
currency: USD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 10
url: https://www.desertcart.us/products/675902171-orbital-international-edition
store_origin: US
region: United States of America
---

# Orbital (International Edition)

**Price:** $37.12
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- **What is this?** Orbital (International Edition)
- **How much does it cost?** $37.12 with free shipping
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## Description

desertcart.com: Orbital (International Edition): 9781529922936: Books

Review: Glorious "Travel Narrative" from the Space Station. "Sense of Wonder" Sci-Fi at its Best! - ORBITAL RATED GREAT. 5/5 A multinational team of astronauts and cosmonauts circle the earth at 17,000 miles per hour on the last mission before the space station is decommissioned in favor of a more ambitious moonshot. And nothing much happens. Except for the Sense of Wonder! "From the space station’s distance mankind is a creature that comes out only at night. Mankind is the light of cities and the illuminated filament of roads. By day, it’s gone. It hides in plain sight." What plot exists in concerned with dealing emotionally with a family funeral that an astronaut cannot attend, a mission to the moon that these astronauts kinda follow, a supertyphoon that bears down on the Philippines, the scientific experiments that each crew member mundanely performs, and staring down at the earth and contemplating. But this isn’t a book about plot. "It is hard to believe the quality of blackness that is the entirety of space around a day-lit earth, where the earth absorbs all the light – yet hard to believe in anything but that blackness, which is alive, and breathing and beckoning." This is a beautifully written prose poem about the big and the small everywhere. Planet Earth is both immensely large and yet small and fragile in the context of space. Human beings are immensely important and yet cosmically meaningless. Some have called this an elegy for the Earth, and I’m not sure I agree with that. It is a contemplation of the sort men do at campires, into sunsets, above crashing waves, and into the eyes of newborn children or down at caskets. "That’s all this great human endeavour of space exploration really is, he thinks, an animal migration," So much of this novella ( ~40,000 words) is dedicated to the beauty of Planet Earth, spilling out in long sentences that run for pages, separated only by commas, covering widely diverse thoughts, or impressions, or quips, or questions, and yet hold a cadence that is masterful, propulsive, and worthy of listening to in an audiobook performance. I will definitely do that for a reread. I devoured this book in less than 24 hours. "At the beach hut they’d been human, a woman, a man, a wife and mother and daughter and a husband and father and son, and they’d crossed themselves, tapped their nails and bitten their lips in unconscious angst. But when they’d got to the launch pad they were Hollywood and sci-fi, Space Odyssey and Disney, imagineered, branded and ready. The rocket peaked in a cap of gleaming newness, absolute and spectacular whiteness and newness, and the sky was a glorious and conquerable blue." Is this scifi? I don’t know. Probably not by my definition. The only extrapolative element is a few science experiments on mice and a new mission to the moon. Still, nothing has so completely put me inside a space station as completely as this novel. It has more in common with the great travel narratives — such as those written by Paul Theroux, Peter Mayle, and Pico Iyer — that most science fiction. And yet, the “Sense of Wonder” in this book is amazing. Rockets, Planet Earth, Space Stations, Astronauts?If that isn’t great science fiction, then I’ve never read any of it. "when I watched the Challenger launch as a child, that was it for me. It wasn’t the moon landings, it was Challenger. I realised space is real, space flight is real, a thing real people do, die doing. Real people, like me, could actually do it, and if I died doing it that would be OK, I could die that way." It a condemnation of the current genre that a book like this can win the 2024 Booker Award, but not even be in the Hugo Award discussion. Still, it finds its audience. A New York Times Bestseller and many thousand reviews on desertcart, Goodreads, and the like. We think we’re the wind, but we’re just the leaf Orbital has my strongest recommendation possible. I love this!
Review: Gorgeous piece of prose. - I am sure this review will be like many others regarding this book. Let me begin with the positives (there are many). It puts the reader inside the space station with the six astronauts; we're made privy to their thoughts and for the most part, what they are feeling. It gives the reader a sense of the wider picture regarding mother earth; it's ills, its nourishment, and the soul shaking impact of seeing the broader picture. Harvey's prose is lyrical, beautiful, poetic; that in itself made me want to continue reading. However, and here is the opinion that I will likely share with others - there is little to no plot. I will recommend it, it only for the crafting of a truly gorgeous piece of writing.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #799,858 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars (18,717) |
| Dimensions  | 5.08 x 0.39 x 7.76 inches |
| Edition  | International Edition |
| ISBN-10  | 1529922933 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1529922936 |
| Item Weight  | 4.2 ounces |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 135 pages |
| Publisher  | Vintage |

## Images

![Orbital (International Edition) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41+886xyKgL.jpg)
![Orbital (International Edition) - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414KXeCeRrL.jpg)
![Orbital (International Edition) - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mRG5qDfML.jpg)
![Orbital (International Edition) - Image 4](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vRNIgDcfL.jpg)
![Orbital (International Edition) - Image 5](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71uWy8Td4eL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Glorious "Travel Narrative" from the Space Station. "Sense of Wonder" Sci-Fi at its Best!
*by A***N on January 8, 2025*

ORBITAL RATED GREAT. 5/5 A multinational team of astronauts and cosmonauts circle the earth at 17,000 miles per hour on the last mission before the space station is decommissioned in favor of a more ambitious moonshot. And nothing much happens. Except for the Sense of Wonder! "From the space station’s distance mankind is a creature that comes out only at night. Mankind is the light of cities and the illuminated filament of roads. By day, it’s gone. It hides in plain sight." What plot exists in concerned with dealing emotionally with a family funeral that an astronaut cannot attend, a mission to the moon that these astronauts kinda follow, a supertyphoon that bears down on the Philippines, the scientific experiments that each crew member mundanely performs, and staring down at the earth and contemplating. But this isn’t a book about plot. "It is hard to believe the quality of blackness that is the entirety of space around a day-lit earth, where the earth absorbs all the light – yet hard to believe in anything but that blackness, which is alive, and breathing and beckoning." This is a beautifully written prose poem about the big and the small everywhere. Planet Earth is both immensely large and yet small and fragile in the context of space. Human beings are immensely important and yet cosmically meaningless. Some have called this an elegy for the Earth, and I’m not sure I agree with that. It is a contemplation of the sort men do at campires, into sunsets, above crashing waves, and into the eyes of newborn children or down at caskets. "That’s all this great human endeavour of space exploration really is, he thinks, an animal migration," So much of this novella ( ~40,000 words) is dedicated to the beauty of Planet Earth, spilling out in long sentences that run for pages, separated only by commas, covering widely diverse thoughts, or impressions, or quips, or questions, and yet hold a cadence that is masterful, propulsive, and worthy of listening to in an audiobook performance. I will definitely do that for a reread. I devoured this book in less than 24 hours. "At the beach hut they’d been human, a woman, a man, a wife and mother and daughter and a husband and father and son, and they’d crossed themselves, tapped their nails and bitten their lips in unconscious angst. But when they’d got to the launch pad they were Hollywood and sci-fi, Space Odyssey and Disney, imagineered, branded and ready. The rocket peaked in a cap of gleaming newness, absolute and spectacular whiteness and newness, and the sky was a glorious and conquerable blue." Is this scifi? I don’t know. Probably not by my definition. The only extrapolative element is a few science experiments on mice and a new mission to the moon. Still, nothing has so completely put me inside a space station as completely as this novel. It has more in common with the great travel narratives — such as those written by Paul Theroux, Peter Mayle, and Pico Iyer — that most science fiction. And yet, the “Sense of Wonder” in this book is amazing. Rockets, Planet Earth, Space Stations, Astronauts?If that isn’t great science fiction, then I’ve never read any of it. "when I watched the Challenger launch as a child, that was it for me. It wasn’t the moon landings, it was Challenger. I realised space is real, space flight is real, a thing real people do, die doing. Real people, like me, could actually do it, and if I died doing it that would be OK, I could die that way." It a condemnation of the current genre that a book like this can win the 2024 Booker Award, but not even be in the Hugo Award discussion. Still, it finds its audience. A New York Times Bestseller and many thousand reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and the like. We think we’re the wind, but we’re just the leaf Orbital has my strongest recommendation possible. I love this!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Gorgeous piece of prose.
*by A***R on August 30, 2025*

I am sure this review will be like many others regarding this book. Let me begin with the positives (there are many). It puts the reader inside the space station with the six astronauts; we're made privy to their thoughts and for the most part, what they are feeling. It gives the reader a sense of the wider picture regarding mother earth; it's ills, its nourishment, and the soul shaking impact of seeing the broader picture. Harvey's prose is lyrical, beautiful, poetic; that in itself made me want to continue reading. However, and here is the opinion that I will likely share with others - there is little to no plot. I will recommend it, it only for the crafting of a truly gorgeous piece of writing.

### ⭐⭐⭐ Great concepts, but characters miss the mark
*by K***R on July 14, 2025*

The writing is strong. The sentences are meaty and vivid. In the beginning, I was in. The first half had me. It lost me a bit in the back half and I felt there was a lot more potential to this piece. But it's a love letter to existence as it is now. If you need to pull back from the stress of the world, Orbital is a good place to get the Star's Eye View.

## Frequently Bought Together

- Orbital (International Edition)
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*Last updated: 2026-03-07*